2018-02-18T05:16:37ZShort and Long Term Representation of an Unfamiliar Tone Distributionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1974/14710
Short and Long Term Representation of an Unfamiliar Tone Distribution
Cui, Anja-Xiaoxing; Diercks, Charlette; Troje, Nikolaus F.; Cuddy, L. Lola
We report on a study conducted to extend our knowledge about the process of gaining a mental representation of music. Several studies, inspired by research on the statistical learning of language, have investigated statistical learning of sequential rules underlying tone sequences. Given that the mental representation of music correlates with distributional properties of music, we tested whether participants are able to abstract distributional information contained in tone sequences to form a mental representation. For this purpose, we created an unfamiliar music genre defined by an underlying tone distribution, to which 40 participants were exposed. Our stimuli allowed us to differentiate between sensitivity to the distributional properties contained in test stimuli and long term representation of the distributional properties of the music genre overall. Using a probe tone paradigm and a two-alternative forced choice discrimination task, we show that listeners are able to abstract distributional properties of music through mere exposure into a long term representation of music. This lends support to the idea that statistical learning is involved in the process of gaining musical knowledge.
2016-08-11T00:00:00ZStraight but not Narrow; Within-Gender Variation in the Gender-Specificity of Women's Sexual Responsehttp://hdl.handle.net/1974/14660
Straight but not Narrow; Within-Gender Variation in the Gender-Specificity of Women's Sexual Response
Chivers, Meredith L.; Bouchard, Katrina L.; Timmers, Amanda D.
Gender differences in the specificity of sexual response have been a primary focus in sexual psychophysiology research, however, within-gender variability suggests sexual orientation moderates category-specific responding among women; only heterosexual women show gender-nonspecific genital responses to sexual stimuli depicting men and women. But heterosexually-identified or “straight” women are heterogeneous in their sexual attractions and include women who are exclusively androphilic (sexually attracted to men) and women who are predominantly androphilic with concurrent gynephilia (sexually attracted to women). It is therefore unclear if gender-nonspecific responding is found in both exclusively and predominantly androphilic women. The current studies investigated within-gender variability in the gender-specificity of women’s sexual response. Two samples of women reporting concurrent andro/gynephilia viewed (Study 1, n = 29) or listened (Study 2, n = 30) to erotic stimuli varying by gender of sexual partner depicted while their genital and subjective sexual responses were assessed. Data were combined with larger datasets of predominantly gyne- and androphilic women (total N = 78 for both studies). In both studies, women reporting any degree of gynephilia, including those who self-identified as heterosexual, showed significantly greater genital response to female stimuli, similar to predominantly gynephilic women; gender-nonspecific genital response was observed for exclusively androphilic women only. Subjective sexual arousal patterns were more variable with respect to sexual attractions, likely reflecting stimulus intensity effects. Heterosexually-identified women are therefore not a homogenous group with respect to sexual responses to gender cues. Implications for within-gender variation in women’s sexual orientation and sexual responses are discussed.
2016-07-18T00:00:00ZFamiliarity and Preference for Pitch Probability Profileshttp://hdl.handle.net/1974/14031
Familiarity and Preference for Pitch Probability Profiles
Cui, Anja-Xiaoxing; Collett, J. Meghan; Troje, Nikolaus F.; Cuddy, L. Lola
We investigated familiarity and preference judgments of participants toward a novel musical system. We exposed participants to tone sequences generated from a novel pitch probability profile. Afterward, we either asked participants to identify more familiar or we asked participants to identify preferred tone sequences in a two-alternative forced-choice task. The task paired a tone sequence generated from the pitch probability profile they had been exposed to and a tone sequence generated from another pitch probability profile at three levels of distinctiveness. We found that participants identified tone sequences as more familiar if they were generated from the same pitch probability profile which they had been exposed to. However, participants did not prefer these tone sequences. We interpret this relationship between familiarity and preference to be consistent with an inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge and affect. The fact that participants identified tone sequences as even more familiar if they were generated from the more distinctive (caricatured) version of the pitch probability profile which they had been exposed to suggests that the statistical learning of the pitch probability profile is involved in gaining of musical knowledge.
2016-02-18T00:00:00ZCross-Cultural Correlates of the Ownership of Private Propertyhttp://hdl.handle.net/1974/2576
Cross-Cultural Correlates of the Ownership of Private Property
Rudmin, Floyd Webster
Simmons’ (1937) data base of 109 variables measured on 71 societies was reanalyzed. Reliability comparisons were made with Murdock’s (1967) Ethnographic Atlas. Eliminated were 3 of Simmons’ cultures because of duplicated sampling within culture clusters, 12 variables because of missing data, 7 variables because of invariance, and 1 variable for doubtful reliability. A conservative analysis (p <
.OOOl) showed private property in land and chattel to correlate with 21 variables falling into 3 clusters, interpretively labelled (1) the social ecology of agriculture, (2) social and material stratification, and (3) social security. Subject to the limitations of archived data and to the indeterminancy of correlational analysis, these findings support arguments that private property arose in agricultural society, but not theories that property is a patriarchal, antifemale institution. Speculations based on psychological literature suggest that private property empowers the defense of the self.
1992-01-01T00:00:00Z